Canberra Raiders need to seize the day or risk obscurity

Shannon Boyd contemplates another defeat for the Raiders. Photograph: Colin

Canberra coach Ricky Stuart last week declared that the club must be patient but time is not a luxury the Raiders can afford. Nor will it bridge the gap between Stuart’s abysmal record and the reputation as one of the game’s premier mentors he has helped craft and mythologise.

To declare the Raiders a club in crisis would be to lean on a cheap cliché while also failing to recognise just how low the club has sunk in the spectrum of Australian sport. The Raiders aren’t in crisis. Sadly, this – the recruitment woes, the retention fails, the coaching platitudes, the inept play, the staidness that runs through every level of the club - is just business as usual in the capital.

The club celebrated the 20-year anniversary of the club’s most recent premiership last Friday night, the Raiders’ third in six years that featured greats such as Mal Meninga, Laurie Daley, Brad Clyde and Stuart himself. The celebrations merely crystallised how little the Raiders have achieved across the last two decades rather than set the city and the club awash in a sea of nostalgia.

The Raiders are the only club to play all 20 seasons since and not feature in a grand final. Little will change in 2014 with Canberra anchored in 14th and showing little to suggest a late-season run is on the cards.

Many of the Raiders’ problems over the last two decades have been a result of a changing world and a new-look game. The Queensland pipeline the Raiders’ once relied so much on is no longer available, the presence of three Queensland clubs allowing locals to stay home. The money boom has left the club well short, relative to most clubs, with Canberra not a city with a big corporate footprint. The transient nature of the city means the Raiders are a club that needs to continually sell without a rusted-on base. Generation Y see fame and attention as central to life as a professional footy player, something that is severely diminished in the smaller market of Canberra. The increasing prevalence of players of Polynesian and Melanesian descent – who typically value family above all else – has also made recruitment difficult.

And no discussion of Canberra’s recruitment woes can be complete without mention of Canberra’s bitter winters.

The Raiders must accept that it is their failings though that have left the Raiders languishing as a footy team, as a national sporting brand and as a respectable organisation. The club has been happy to accept mediocrity on the field and off it. Nepotism and insular thinking have reigned supreme. The club has been devoid of leadership and accountability. In no area are the Raiders considered pioneers or best-in-field practitioners. The only identity the Raiders have developed is that of a flaky, second-rate performer; an organisation that holds little pull for players.

Another two years – the time Stuart has declared he needs to get the rebuild underway – is unlikely to change things. Time is not a cure-all salve.

The jury is also out as to whether Stuart has the coaching chops to rebuild the Raiders into a premiership force. Even the most ardent Stuart supporter would struggle to make a case for him based on his record, particularly in recent years. After coaching the Roosters to three grand finals in his first three seasons, Stuart has manned just one winning season over the last decade with a 66-111 record. Stuart teams have not won consecutive games since 2009 – four coaching seasons and three clubs back – while his strike rate over that time is 23.8%. In the last two seasons his side has conceded 50 points an incredible six times. Wayne Bennett has suffered the humiliation just three times in over 700 games.

There is also plenty of evidence that players aren’t overly keen to be mentored by Stuart. Despite a huge chequebook, a big market club and some heavy connects after coaching the Blues for two years, Stuart managed to lure to the Eels only Corey Norman and Nathan Peats. Both came for opportunity more than anything else. The likes of Greg Bird, Matt Scott and Israel Folau all knocked back a move.

It has been a song from the same hymn sheet in Canberra with the likes of James Tedesco, Michael Ennis, Kevin Proctor and Josh Mansour rejecting big money offers while Anthony Milford shunned a deal that would have made him one of the richest players in the NRL to honour a commitment to Brisbane.

The wholesale rejection of the Raiders as an organisation must lead to a rethink both within the Raiders and at League HQ.

For too long, Canberra have been willing to wallow in their circumstances, allowing them to become excuses. The Raiders need strong leadership and an organisational overhaul. They need to do all in their power to make Canberra a desirable club to play at, even if the city isn’t the preferred place for many players. A total review is required and everybody – playing roster, coach, CEO – should have their head on the block if they aren’t the very best available.

Some help from the NRL wouldn’t hurt either. Salary cap dispensation would be a fair start. An external draft would be a major shift in how talent is distributed in the NRL but it would put clubs like the Raiders on much fairer footing. Putting mechanisms in place that will allow the Raiders to, at the very least, keep their best home-grown juniors is necessary.

Patience is a virtue but hesitation can be deadly. The Raiders need to be aggressive with their recruitment. They cannot wait two years as Stuart suggests. They need to go hard. They need talent and they need to build some momentum. They should be raiding Super League. They should be finding talented players struggling for an opportunity. They need to be like South Sydney in the immediate aftermath of their privatisation.

They also need to look at whether their current coach is the man who can lead them to Jerusalem. If he isn’t, the tough decision needs to be made and the right man brought in. And it needs to happen now. Finding the right coach is the most important decision a club can make. Canberra cannot afford to just burn another year or two. The financial cost may be heavy but it will be more costly in the long run to stick with Stuart if he isn’t the coach to bring the Raiders back.

Seize the day. It isn’t a motto that has been used much at the Raiders over the last two decades but it is high time it becomes their mantra if they are going to change tack and become relevant again.

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